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anyone ever run a locked/welded front diff and a open /stock rear diff??,

I was talkin with a buddy at work who owns a toyota pickup with air lockers , he says he prefers to lock the front , not the back , says if he could only lock one end it would be the front , any experiance with this? , if so on a strictly trail rig you could weld up the front and put a LSD on rear,

ya, most people only lock the rear cuz its alot easier on a subaru. but... all of your weight is up front in a toyota, they are realy light in the back end, so theres not as much traction back there.
with a cast iron block, and big tranny, and xfer case, and front diff... lotsa weight.

my cousin runs a street car with locked front diff, welded. its harder to turn, and squirlier in the rain, but its great traction.
i wouldnt do it on an offroad subaru tho, one blip of the throttle with wheels turned would snap axles like... well, subaru axles.

anyone ever run a locked/welded front diff and a open /stock rear diff??,

I was talkin with a buddy at work who owns a toyota pickup with air lockers , he says he prefers to lock the front , not the back , says if he could only lock one end it would be the front , any experiance with this? , if so on a strictly trail rig you could weld up the front and put a LSD on rear,

SJR

Well it is nicer to have it in the front, HOWEVER, in most other offroaders the front hubs "unlock" to prevent blown axles. Subarus dont. You will not be able to turn, and you will blow axles like its cool.

Don't lock the front end!! Leave it open. Haveing a locked up front end sucks. You will hardly be able to steer and the front end won't be able to handle the stress. Had a 85 Toy with lockers front and rear. The front locker didn't stay in very long after I purchased the truck.

Don't lock the front end!! Leave it open. Haveing a locked up front end sucks. You will hardly be able to steer and the front end won't be able to handle the stress. Had a 85 Toy with lockers front and rear. The front locker didn't stay in very long after I purchased the truck.

Yeah; everyone I wheel with that has front/rear lockers only enguages the front one when they absolutly need it. Otherwise its more trouble than it's worth. It's there for good reasons but those good reasons aren't always there!

Something I've been toying with the idea of, mount a second handbrake lever next to the original and have one for each front wheel, if you put a wheel in the air reef up it's handbrake and the power should go to the grounded wheel as it's suddenly the easier wheel to turn. Jam it down again as soon as you're back on the ground.

Something I've been toying with the idea of, mount a second handbrake lever next to the original and have one for each front wheel, if you put a wheel in the air reef up it's handbrake and the power should go to the grounded wheel as it's suddenly the easier wheel to turn. Jam it down again as soon as you're back on the ground.

I have this setup on the back, its a turning Cutter brake works of the hydrolics, works ok , wish I had more leverage as it takes a lot of presure to stop that wheel in the air from spinin, I would like to do the same on the front as you mentioned, would be a simple install SJR

I've mounted a second handle, but haven't had time to try to hook up the cables. I've thought about it, but just haven't had the time. and am still working things out to get the rig set up how I want....

anyway, it wouldn't be too great in the really hairy obstacles, like a really technical hillclimb where momentum is key, where you'd be concentrating on your line, etc. but if you got hung up on a log or something, you could easily pull yourself the last few inches over it, instead of taking a bigger run at it.

I've found that the wheeling I do, a little posi all the time in the rear will probably help me more than dual ebrake...

Geting a "Turning Brake" set and installing it would work even better. It gets plumbed into the hyd. brake sys. so it has more holding power with less efort;) U can get 'em from any buggy suply house for around $75.

I have just installed the dual ebrake mod on my GL. It works awesome for the front, although it won't completely lock a wheel. It holds enough to transfer power though. I drove up a set of offset ramps, in FWD with one front wheel in the air. 1WD! Awesome:grin:

Now for the new topic. Trying to come up with a way to lock the rear seperately, I though of a new idea. It was suggested above in this thread some type of hydraulic locker. It then occured to me that subaru equipped all their manual transmission cars with hydraulic brake holders in the form of the Hill Holder!!!

So my Idea is to mount and plumb 2 hill holder valves near the rear propotioning valves. Plumbed in down stream of the proportioning valve, one to each wheel. Mounted at an upward angle so it would work on downhills. Rig the cables to a set of handles in the cab. NOT connected at all to the clutch activated hill holder. It could be installed the same on either manuals or automatics.

To use, simply set the brakes with the brake pedal, pull the cable for the choosen wheel, and release brakes. Only the one rear wheel locked by the activated cable would stay locked, and you could crawl over you're obstacle.

Just hill holders dont work well when they oriented in reverse. i can tell you personally they get a bit confused, Try backing down a hill with one in reverse after a stop, its not a smooth transition.

Just hill holders dont work well when they oriented in reverse. i can tell you personally they get a bit confused, Try backing down a hill with one in reverse after a stop, its not a smooth transition.

nipper

That's only an issue because it's tied to clutch. My setup would not have the added hill holders tied to the clutch at all. In fact my GL is a 4EAT automatic. They would be hand controled by handles mounted int he cab. I have a sweet set of vintage Campangnolo road bike brake handles I want to use. So, they would not be used at all during normal driving. Only activated when I want by use of the handles.

I would mount the hill holder valves themselves at about a 20 degree upward angle, so they would work even if I was nose down stuck on an obstacle.

Something I've been toying with the idea of, mount a second handbrake lever next to the original and have one for each front wheel, if you put a wheel in the air reef up it's handbrake and the power should go to the grounded wheel as it's suddenly the easier wheel to turn. Jam it down again as soon as you're back on the ground.

I just thought that I would add that...Porsche uses this on its Cayenne. It uses the abs unit to lock and unlock individual wheels to transfer the power through each diff to the wheel on the ground. It works really well and would be cool to use turning brake controls to make your own version. A welded rear diff and turning brake controls for the front in theory would be a fun experiment.They also have a "extreme off road package" that has hydraulic decoupling sway bars to help articulation.

heres a cutter brake used on sand rails they work awesome for turning and braking . if there was a way to get more leverage out of this it should work, I had one in my first subaru but couldnt get enough force to keep that wheel in the air from spinning, since then have found that a welded rear diff is the way to go